CS Hub is 1 of 8 UK Future Manufacturing Hubs, funded by EPSRC and industry and first launched in October 2016.
We perform unique, exciting and vital research into large scale Compound Semiconductor (CS) manufacturing, and in manufacturing integrated CSs on Silicon. In association with the Institute for Compound Semiconductors at Cardiff University, we provide world-leading facilities that will translate CS research into large-scale growth and device fabrication. This is essential to the future of most technologies. Compound semiconductor materials are a Key Enabling Technology at the heart of modern society. Next generation technologies will only be achieved with a huge increase in compound semiconductor manufacture.
The CS Hub is led from Cardiff University, with spokes at University of Manchester, University of Sheffield, and University College London. We have >30 industrial partners participating in the CS Hub by providing resources, time and expertise. Existing CS Hub partners can be found at partner organisations.
We have strong links with colleagues in other Hubs, particularly the Future Advanced Metrology Hub and the Future Photonics Hub. These links will support and complement our CS research, and facilitate larger investments for promising, cross-cutting feasibility studies.
We aim to make huge inroads to the use of CSs as an alternative to silicon, which will allow other scientific and technical areas to flourish, supporting the UK economy.
Future Manufacturing hubs background
To help manufacturing industries respond to future opportunities and drivers, and contribute to a prosperous UK, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of Research Councils UK (RCUK), looked to evolve their critical mass investments in manufacturing, building on the successes of the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centres and the EPSRC Centres for Innovative Manufacturing.
The EPSRCs vision for this critical mass investment was to support UK manufacturing industries, by funding the commercialisation of early stage research opportunities in emerging areas, through a network of Future Manufacturing Research Hubs.
For further information visit the EPSRC website.
The structure of the CS Hub
The CS Hub is comprised of 2 grand challenges, 3 platform work packages, and 5 work packages broadly define our research areas. Full detail can be found in our Research pages.
We hope to build on these research areas by supporting new studies through feasibility study funding. Our first round funded 6 new studies (August 2018). Subsequent rounds will be announced on our website as they arise. A key component of these studies is to promote interactions between the CS Hub and new partners (academic and industry).
Our first Grand Challenge focuses on enabling the connected nation, while our second encompasses the important issues surrounding Sensing in CS manufacture. Our research interests further break down into CSs on silicon epitaxy (III-Sb, III-As, and III-N), CSs on silicon device fabrication, as well as FastFab – Integrated growth, fabrication and characterisation. These initial basic issues are further supported by research into the Connected Nation, including Manufacturing Technology for Optical Datacommunications on silicon, Advanced Radio Frequency devices and MMICs, as well as Monolithic Integration of RGB LEDs and Integrated Radio Frequency Electronics for LiFi. Our second Grand Challenge is supported by research focuses on Magnetic Arrays and Infra Red Arrays.
Our parallel projects
- Integrated GaN-diamond microwave Electronics: from materials, transistors to MMICs
- Underpinning equipment for the compound semiconductor hub
- Advanced III-nitride materials for next generation UV emitters used in water purification, environmental protection and local network communication
- Mac V: miniaturised atomic clocks using VCSEL pump sources
- High performance buffers for RF GaN electronic
- Ultra-stable high-performance single nanolasers
- Nanoelectronic based quantum physics- technology and applications.
- Integration of RF circuits with high speed GaN switching on silicon substrates
- Vertical cubic GaN LEDs on 150mm 3C-SiC substrates
- GaAsP-GaAs nanowire quantum dots for novel quantum emitters
- DiLaN: Diode laser manufacturing process using nano-imprint technology
CS Hub Video
The CS Hub has created the following video to highlight not only the range of research that we are currently undertaking, but also our existing industry partnership connections and the mutual benefits for research, translation and exploitation.